FORT COLLINS — In 2011, the Colorado State Rams’ offensive line was the most injured, yet still surprisingly effective, area on the football team. Starters, Joe Caprioglio and Jared Baird both went down early with season-ending knee injuries.

Soon, the team was playing untested redshirt freshmen in Ty Sambrailo and Mason Hathaway. By the end of the season center Weston Richburg was playing his position with a broken right hand, snapping with his opposite hand.

The line graduated Paul Madsen and Jake Gdowski, but, in part because of the massive injuries suffered last season, brings back a host of players with game experience. After a year of patching things together, CSU now boasts one of the most experienced offensive lines in the Mountain West.

He might have started the season in anonymity, but Colorado State defensive end Nordly Capi didn’t end it that way.

The sophomore, who terrorized quarterbacks all season long, was named to the Mountain West Conference first team today.

Capi was one of the nation’s best pass rushers, finishing the year with 10 sacks and seven forced fumbles. His sack total tied for eighth in the nation. His forced fumble total was second in the nation, only to Illinois’ Whitney Mercilus, who had nine.

FORT COLLINS – The situation has improved so much that it’s now a laughing matter.

Colorado State linebackers coach Bernard Clark was asked about senior Mychal Sisson’s playing status for Saturday against Texas Christian University.

“He’s playing,” Clark said.

And then laughed.

Sisson was all smiles, too, today after practice and why not? He’s finally going to get back on the field on Saturday, more than two months after he suffered a broken right ankle against Northern Colorado, the Rams’ second game of the season.

“I’m going to see the field this weekend, no matter what,” Sisson said. “How much I’m going to see, that’s the only part. We’ll see how the week’s practice goes.”

Sisson’s exact playing time remains to be seen, though Clark would be happy to see the senior captain on the field in the 20-snap range. Even if it is planned, however, the flow of the game figures to dictate how much Sisson is actually on the field.

He did practice fully today, and was satisfied with how his ankle responded.

“I felt a lot better than I did last week on my ankle,” Sisson said. “I felt I didn’t have that hesitation that I had last week. This week, I was going and doing everything normally.”

Meanwhile, the news is cloudier for offensive linemen Paul Madsen and Weston Richburg.

Madsen, a senior tackle, is dealing with a high ankle sprain. He did not practice today, but plans to gradually do more as the week progresses.

“I’m going practice tomorrow, but I’m going to be careful on it,” Madsen said. “And then I’m going to practice all of Thursday. That’s the hope at least, and see how it feels.”

Madsen did say he intends to play.

“I’m going to do it,” he said. “I’m doing the rehab that they are asking me to, and I feel confident that we’ll have a good game. And they are going to tape it up a lot and hopefully that helps support it.”

Richburg, a sophomore center with a broken right hand, has a longer road to go to be able to play. He practiced, but reported lukewarm results and had to see a doctor afterward.

He tried snapping the ball with his left hand to varying degrees of results.

“I tried that before practice, got a few under center and then a couple of shotgun snaps,” Richburg said. “It looked all right, but I don’t if we can put confidence in that for an every-time guaranteed good snap. So I don’t know, it’ll be a coaches’ decision. I don’t know.”

Follow Chris Dempsey on Twitter @dempseypost or email him at cdempsey@denverpost.com

FORT COLLINS – Colorado State quarterback Pete Thomas and his sprained left knee is “day-to-day” according to coach Steve Fairchild, who isn’t sure if he’ll have the sophomore this week against TCU.

Should Thomas not be able to start, it would A) snap his streak of 21 consecutive games started; and B) pave the way for freshman Garrett Grayson to make the first start of his career. Fairchild described Thomas’s knee sprain as being similar to that of offensive lineman Paul Madsen’s a few weeks ago.

If that ends up being the case, Thomas will not play this week. Madsen missed a game before returning the following week.

“We’ll know more as he gets checked out,” Fairchild said. “We’ll see how available he is on Tuesday. It does not look to be season-ending I don’t think.”

Fairchild said Thomas’s availability for Saturday’s game doesn’t depend on the quarterback practicing by a certain day of the week, rather how he looks if he does practice. Either way, Grayson – a player that has a lot of buzz among fans – will get at least share of live practice repetitions as the Rams prepare to face Mountain West-leading TCU in Fort Worth. And even if Thomas does return, Fairchild pledged to play the strong-armed Grayson to some extent anyway.

“He’ll play now. He’ll play some in every game,” Fairchild said. “We’ve got to commit to him. Even when Pete’s back, be it this week or next week, whenever, I think Garrett deserves the right to play in the games and we’ll do that.”

Meanwhile, the Rams also have injury issues with Madsen (sprained ankle) and center Weston Richburg (broken hand). Their status will be determined as the week progresses. Richburg’s injury is to his snapping hand, so either he’ll snap with his left hand or be moved somewhere else on the offensive line to play or not play at all.

“Anything is possible at this point,” Fairchild said.

Finally, linebacker Mychal Sisson is going to try again to get back on the field and play since breaking his right ankle on Sept. 10 against Northern Colorado. Sisson, a senior, originally targeted this game as his return contest. It looked as if he might beat that by a week when he returned to practice last week, but was held out for precautionary reasons.

“I would say he’s got a chance but I think we’ll know a lot more tomorrow,” Fairchild said.

Follow Chris Dempsey on Twitter @dempseypost or email him at cdempsey@denverpost.com

FORT COLLINS – Surprises came all around when Paul Madsen took the field at his usual right tackle slot for CSU against UNLV on Oct 29.

CSU coach Steve Fairchild was surprised at how long the senior, who missed the previous game with a sprained knee, was able to play.

Madsen was surprised at how good he felt.

“I definitely feel like I played more (than I thought),” Madsen said. “I went into that game thinking I was going to play every other series, or maybe a quarter or two. But I got out there and I felt good enough that I only took two series off. I felt really good.”

CSU’s offensive line has been hit harder than any other position by injuries this season. The Rams hope to get senior tackle Paul Madsen back for Saturday’s game at UNLV. He missed CSU’s last game, at UTEP, with a sprained knee. Should he return, it would give the Rams additional depth and experience back on the line.

But if Madsen doesn’t return and the team suffers another injury on the line they may have to play Frieler, the 6-5, 295-pound former Denver Post All-Colorado player for Greeley West in 2009.

FORT COLLINS – Depth was the talk of the preseason and first few weeks of the regular season. Seven weeks in to the season it is being tested in a way no one imagined.

Senior tackle Paul Madsen (knee) is the latest in a long line of injuries CSU has suffered this season. Madsen, a team captain, is out for Saturday’s game at Texas-El Paso and is expected to be out significant time, according to head coach Steve Fairchild.

“He will not be available Saturday,” Fairchild said. “We do hope to have him back prior to the end of the year.”

ALBUQUERQUE – As Utah State showed in a near-victory over No. 23 Auburn at Auburn earlier today, a good offensive line can carry you a long way, even in the most hostile of circumstances.

The Aggies controlled the line of scrimmage all day against what was supposed to be a stout Auburn defense, racking up 227 yards rushing and five touchdowns on the ground.

Colorado State hopes for the same, only with a victory attached to the end. The Rams return four starters on an offensive line that coach Steve Fairchild raved about earlier this week. Senior tackle Paul Madsen is an offensive captain and the veteran leader of a group that includes sophomore center Weston Richburg, who has been identified nationally as a rising star at his position.

“I like our offensive line a lot,” Fairchild said. “We had a very, very good line here in ’08 and ’09. I think this group can work its way into being that type of offensive line.”

In a season Colorado State hopes is a breakthrough campaign, league media remain a bit skeptical of how good the Rams can be. The media picked CSU to finish fifth in a new-look Mountain West conference that is in the first of a two-year transition.

The MWC, which adds Nevada, Fresno State and Hawaii next season, is an eight-team league this year with the departures of Utah to the Pac-12 and BYU, which went independent. CSU is looking to bounce back from a 3-9 finish last season, with just two victories in conference play. Newcomer Boise State, which visits Fort Collins on Oct. 15 to face the Rams, was named preseason favorite to win the MWC title.

The 2010 Rams will have to do without departed offensive lineman such as Cole Pemberton (No. 53).

In the third part of a series of look-aheads at Colorado State’s 2010 season, broken down by units, we look at the Rams up front, on the offensive line …

Newcomers: This is traditionally to toughest position to fill in college with a true freshman. That said, Mason Myers, 6-3, 285, is getting a look on the depth chart at center. Redshirt freshman Weston Richburg is very much in the battle at center.

Strengths: This is a work-in-progress area. Despite inexperience, many of the linemen have been in the program for a while and the Rams should be more than solid at tackle with Mark Starr and Paul Madsen, both with starting experience. Also guard Jake Gdowski had four starts in Smith place a year ago.

Weaknesses: Proven depth at tackle and figuring out the pieces on the interior line, particularly at center which had been manned so well for years by Tim Walter.

What to look for: Steve Fairchild says this group could eventually be better than the offensive line unit of a year ago. Time will tell. First, Ryan Griffin, Tyler McDermott and Connor Smith need to settle the positions at center and one guard. There is a fair amount of depth developing in the ranks.

Kensler joined The Denver Post in 1989 and has covered a variety of beats, including Colorado, Colorado State, golf, Olympics and the Denver Broncos. His brush with greatness: losing in a two-on-two pickup basketball game at Ohio State against two-time Heisman Trophy winner Archie Griffin.

Terry Frei graduated from Wheat Ridge High School in the Denver area and has degrees in history and journalism from the University of Colorado-Boulder. He worked for the Rocky Mountain News while attending CU and joined the Post staff after graduation. He has also worked at the Oregonian in Portland, Ore., and The Sporting News. His seventh book, March 1939: Before the Madness, was issued in February 2014.